It has been said that "churches make disciples and disciples make churches." But how does a church or a disciple know when it is time to plant or multiply? Dave Harvey answers this question in the video below.

How does a church planter know when he's call to plant or a church is called to multiply?

You have a qualified leader/champion.

God has stirred others to join or has prepared others to receive.

You find faith to release and replace the man.

You can identify a specific location that seems ripe for a church.

The impact of the team’s departure will impose sacrifice, not slaughter.

Reflection: I have many distinct memories of standing on stage sending out church planters & teams thinking, ‘How will we ever replace men, fruitfulness or resources?” only to find there is an Acts 13 principle of sending out your best.

Qualification: We don't want to undermine the effectiveness of church by sowing out all strong leaders. There is a balance between building & expansion comes through perceptive leadership & prayer!

Transcript:

Well, I think one of the things that's so encouraging is first, there's going to be a grace in his life to manifest the qualities needed for a successful church plant, the qualities needed for the godliness required to be an elder. So when I think of 1 Timothy 3, or Titus 1, the way those qualities form, are you godly with the people around you? Would your wife be able to commend you, that you're sober-minded and respectable and all those things that are talked about in the pastoral epistles? Do you love the lost? Can you preach? That's an important one. Can you preach the Word, and do you have a desire to do so? And are there people around you that would commend your preaching and feel inspired by the way you exposit the Word of God?

Can you shepherd? In other words, is there a component of care in the way that you relate to people? And is there a leadership that is evident when you're standing in front of a small group or among your friends that kind of galvanize people and point them in a direction? How's your home? How's your marriage? How about your kids? These are the kind of things that come into view in Scripture when we talk about calling, and in order to go to church plant, we have to have these things in view.

Here's another one: who agrees? Who agrees with the reality that you feel called? In other words, it's not enough that you feel an internal call to church plant or an internal call to ministry. But that internal call has to be confirmed by an external source. It's gotta be confirmed and corroborated by the church, by pastors, by other people, so it's the combination of the internal, the external, that launches a man. Look, look for these things. It'll make a difference.

One mistake some people make in our tribe of Reformed Evangelicalism is to engage the culture only at a thought or worldview level. That is necessary and helpful, but we also need to draw out the implications of shifts in our culture’s belief systems and values to how we lead in the midst of them.

Often, I find myself feeling like our church plant is so small and slow and unorthodox that it’s almost inconsequential. The gatherings are ordinary, and our meeting places are less than ideal. I wonder, “Am I the right person for this?” And “Wouldn’t God be more glorified by a more attractive environment?” In the middle of my church planting insecurities, the season of Advent speaks into my fears.

A little over seven years ago, God moved me, my wife, my fourteen-year-old daughter and our two cats from Southern California to Northern Ohio. I was on staff at a large church at the time, and it seemed like God was opening a ministry door for us in a place I had traveled through many times and enjoyed immensely as a tourist — if there is such a thing as an Ohio tourist. Now, before I go any further, let me answer some questions that just popped into your head.

One of the questions church planters are often asked is “Why are you planting a church? Isn’t there enough already?” As a network of pastors and church planters, why do we think church planting is so important? How does church planting contribute to healthy pastors and healthy churches? Dave Harvey answers these questions and more in this free Sojourn Network Paper.

We have a new padlock on the gate to our church building in downtown Birmingham. The old one was somehow misplaced, and that, in large part, was what led to our 24’ trailer getting stolen just two days before we were set to launch services in our new facility. That may not seem like such a big deal (that’s what insurance is for, right?), but the problem was that all of our sound and kids equipment had yet to be moved into the building from said trailer, meaning that we had less than 48 hours to come up with a lot of stuff or launch Sunday was a no-go!

Whether you realize it or not, you are developing a culture of care in your church. We need to ensure that the gospel that we read, sing and preach Sunday after Sunday reorients and reshapes God’s people, who are easily conformed by the world’s cultural norms. Only God and his realities offer hope in the difficulties of life.

Leadership structures in multisite churches are incredibly complex. In every multisite church, there’s a tension between freedom, control, and decision-making authority. A pertinent question every multisite church must wrestle with is, “Who calls the shots?”

Even with a solid biblical and theological basis for mission, aspiring church planters find that building mission into the fabric of their new church can be a challenge. Here are a few practical suggestions in developing a missional emphasis in a church plant.